Winona Ryder Spills the Tea on Overcoming Hollywood’s Beauty Standards
Winona Ryder, the beloved star from Netflix’s Stranger Things, has sassily opened up about her Hollywood journey, including the times she was deemed not ‘pretty enough’ for a role. Known for her iconic roles in films like Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, Ryder has faced her fair share of challenges in the industry. Despite her talent, there was a time when she was almost passed over for a role for not fitting the conventional beauty standards.
Back in the day, Ryder kicked off her acting career with teen movies like Lucas (1986) and Square Dance (1987). Her big break came when director Tim Burton cast her as the quirky ‘weird girl’ in Beetlejuice. This role seemed to have typecast her, making it difficult for her to snag roles that diverged from the eccentric outsider.
Despite the success of Beetlejuice, Ryder struggled to land the role of Veronica Sawyer in the dark comedy Heathers. The role, much like her earlier work, was set in a high school but with a dark twist involving murder and mayhem.
In a candid chat with Harper’s BAZAAR, Ryder shared her initial struggles, “I’d been slipped the script by Michael McDow who wrote Beetlejuice and was a friend and it was such a brilliant script. It was sort of going around secretly, so to get slipped that early on was great. And I went in and I met and they didn’t think I was pretty enough, I was sort of the weird girl from Beetlejuice.”
Interestingly, Ryder didn’t take the criticism too harshly. She understood why they saw her that way, given her previous roles.
Reflecting on the feedback, Ryder found it ‘very fair’. “Because on screen I’d only played very weird characters,” she reasoned. However, not one to be easily discouraged, Ryder took matters into her own hands. In a bold move, she dashed across to the Beverly Center and got a full makeover at Macy’s, transforming her look completely.
With a new look, she returned to the casting team and confidently stated, “You don’t even have to pay me, I just want to say these words.” This determination paid off, and Ryder landed the role, transforming Heathers into a box office sensation. The film earned nearly $75 million on a $15 million budget and garnered a 95 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, later inspiring a Broadway musical adaptation.
Ryder’s experience highlights the challenges and biases in Hollywood, but also her resilience and determination to break molds and redefine beauty standards in the industry.